JoclyBoard, a multi-platform GUI (+AI) supporting Hub and DXP

[mig]

Hi,

Just released a first version of JoclyBoard. For Draughts, it has been tested with Scan (Hub and DXP) and Mobydam (DXP), the only draughts engines i found in open-source. If you have access to other engines, please let me know how it goes.

The JoclyBoard project is hosted here or you can jump straight to the downloadable binaries section.

JoclyBoard has the following features:

• Open-source
• Multi-platform: Windows, Mac, Linux
• mouse-controlled 3D game user interface
• 2D user interface available
• fully resizeable game windows
• anaglyph view available: red/cyan stereo vision
• embedded artificial intelligence for all games
• connecting to game engines via protocols UCI, CECP, HUB and DXP
• navigation through played moves
• import/export standard book in PGN and PDN format
• import/export board position in FEN format
• clocked games
• rules available for every game
• multi-windows: any number of games can be launched simultaneously
• templating: ability to save and reuse view options / players / clock mode
• command line interface to launch directly games in given configuration

[mig]

0 feedback ? Please don't make me regret to have invested time for draughts players.

[Krzysztof Grzelak]

I downloaded this program. I do not think today that if a programmer is doing several versions of a program, there are usually two good versions of the program and the other is playing weaker.

[mig]

I'm afraid i did not understand what you mean. several versions ? one being weaker ?

[Krzysztof Grzelak]

Very nicely done. I have a few questions.

1. Is it possible for the program to show variants during the game

[mig]

If you open a PDN file that contains variants, you can deploy recursively the variants in the PDN text and see the positions.

Otherwise, i am not sure of the feature. Would it be having the ability to clone a board window so you can test possible follow-ups without changing the original board ? There is currently no such feature but it would be easy to implement in a next version.

By the way, since this is a very first version, i'm still grabbing worked/not-worked info. So it works for you, this is good what machine are you on, Windows, Mac, Linux ? do you see the board in 3D or 2D ?

[Rein Halbersma]

0 feedback ? Please don't make me regret to have invested time for draughts players.

Hi, thanks for making this available. Could you post some screenshots?

[Fabien Letouzey]

By the way, since this is a very first version, i'm still grabbing worked/not-worked info. So it works for you, this is good what machine are you on, Windows, Mac, Linux ? do you see the board in 3D or 2D ?

Not answering for Krzysztof, but it worked on Mac, 3D (ish, with zoom). I haven't tried any engine connection, but your code looked good.

[mig]

I have this one on the github repository.

0 feedback ? Please don't make me regret to have invested time for draughts players.

Hi, thanks for making this available. Could you post some screenshots?

[Krzysztof Grzelak]

Yes, your code works very well, at least for the draughts. I play on Windows 7 64 bit. I'm thinking of setting the time right after clicking on the green button QUICK PLAY.

[mig]

Not answering for Krzysztof, but it worked on Mac, 3D (ish, with zoom). I haven't tried any engine connection, but your code looked good.

Thanks Fabien

[mig]

Yes, your code works very well, at least for the draughts. I play on Windows 7 64 bit. I'm thinking of setting the time right after clicking on the green button QUICK PLAY.

Right now "Quick Play" is not clocked, it's for very casual play. If users ask for a quicker access to clocked games, i will either add a shortcut from the main window, or maybe a per-game setting saying "default is clocked".

[mig]

The real thrill is unfortunately not (yet) available on JoclyBoard: Virtual Reality

With an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive headset, you can play any of those games holding (virtually) the board in one hand and a laser pointer on the other one. The result is really spectacular with a great user experience ! My code is VR ready and it works online (assuming you have a VR headset and configured Firefox to work with WebVR) but the framework JoclyBoard relies on (Electron) does not yet support VR. Hopefully it will work before the end of the year.

[mig]

Yes, your code works very well, at least for the draughts. I play on Windows 7 64 bit. I'm thinking of setting the time right after clicking on the green button QUICK PLAY.

Right now "Quick Play" is not clocked, it's for very casual play. If users ask for a quicker access to clocked games, i will either add a shortcut from the main window, or maybe a per-game setting saying "default is clocked".

By the way, if you save a clocked game as a template, you can then launch new clocked games in one click from the Templates section.

[Krzysztof Grzelak]

Thank you for all your responses Michel. I would add some options in the program.

1. saving batches in format pdn
2. add a variant as the program thinks of the move
3. add an option so the program can play for the number of moves, for example 20 minutes for 75 moves